Our Dream Renovation: 07 Wall & Roof Framing

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This entry is part 7 of 8 in the series Our Dream Renovation: A Full Insight - Our Step By Step Process

Our Dream Renovation: A Full Insight - Our Step By Step Process

It’s now time to talk about the wall and roof framing stage of our project. I have had many favourite stages with this project, but this one is where I felt the most progress was made. At the end finally seeing it take shape was awesome and very satisfying.

It is good to note that by this point I had already locked in a roof truss supplier and had a provisional delivery date set. This is important as there can be a large lead time in the manufacturing of roof trusses.

Custom cutting residential wall frames
My old man giving me a hand cutting up the wall frames. You can see I have the external wall bottom plates set out ready for the stud timbers and top plates to be installed.

Custom Making The Wall Framing

On the 25th of Feburary 2019, I started cutting and standing the wall frames. However, before this I needed to mark out my walls. I measured out all my external wall frames and chalked a straight line.

The bottom plates were nailed down and the stud positions were marked out. 600 centers everywhere mostly, except 450 centers in the bathrooms. The door and window openings, stud junctions were all marked out as well.

Custom made residential wall frames on the rake
This will be our dining room, with the sliding door eventually leading out onto a deck. These walls are all raked to suit the LVL rafter design with outriggers used to create the eaves. The windows were installed a bit prematurely, as our delivery cam a little earlier then expected.

Why I chose to custom make the wall frames

There were several reasons why I chose to custom make my wall frames – rather than buy prefabricated frames.

  • Flexibilty. The flexibilty of custom making frames meant I had the choice to change the layout where I saw fit. Obviously not anything external, but more so the internal aspects. For instance I changed the ensuite layout and downsized it to make the walk in robes larger (the ensuite originally was way too oversized).
  • Quality. I had the chance to ensure the timbers used were true and straight. Using up the bowed timbers for nogins or double studs where I was able to straighten them.
  • Eliminate discrepancies. When renovating an existing home, tieing into the new and the old could create different types of discrepancies. For example, different heights and levels. I resolved height and floor level issues quite easily, without having to chop into a prefabricated frame.
  • Money saving. I did end up saving money by making the frames myself, but remember though, I did sacrafice time.

Although, the number one reason I decided to custom make the wall framing was because of ease. I could only get extra hands to help on the weekends. I usually come home from work to spend a couple of hours each afternoon working on the house. Custom making the frames enabled me to be able to work on the frames whenever I wanted, without having to rely on having extra sets of hands to help me lug around heavy prefabricated frames.

The wall frames predominately have been built, with an exception of a few bits and pieces here and there. I needed to make room to work, so I got an area ready and started getting the trusses up on top of the walls. I decided to skip the crane costs and manually lug them up with about 6 of us. We got there in the end, probably saving $500!

Just remember, custom making the wall frames isn’t for everyone. It is recommended to be trade skilled at least. You want everything to be precise, we are talking about the bones of your home here! Also, the time factor is also the biggest reason why many would prefer prefabricated frames over custom making. You could cut months off a project with prefabricated frames.

Roof Framing

The wall framing was up and standing, therefore we are able to make a start with the roof framing. The walls were temporary braces and straightened ready for the roof framing install.

Every external and internal corner of the building was plumbed and temporary braced. I installed all the strap bracing and ply bracing where needed. Lastly, I ran stringlines and straightened my walls, ready for the roof trusses to be installed.

Residential wall framing high walls with highlight windows
My favourite part of our frame and roof design, the high raked ceiling with highlight windows. We incorporated 900mm eaves to aid with a bit of shading from the sun around mid to late morning.

With all this done I could start standing the roof trusses. The roof structure was a simple skillion design. Most of the house had full span trusses, wall to wall. Our main upstairs living, kitchen and dining had a pitched roof with 11m 150×45 LVL rafters. They were supported by 2, 300×65 GL8 engineered beams.

The framing stage was a long and tiring process, but like I said before, seeing it up and standing at the end was a really good feeling. We got a really good look and feel of what our new home was going to look like!

The completed wall and roof framing stage, with the windows installed ready for the roofing to be installed and lock up. Sorry the trailer was in the way, it was a long day!

Take The Guided Tour

 

Wall & Roof Framing Stage Costs

Description$ Costs
Wall framing materials:
– Timber: 90×35, 90×45 & opening headers
– Nails/screws, strap bracing, plywood, etc		$5,872.51
Bunnings materials: For the wall framing$480.08
Roof framing materials:
– A supplied by my truss manufacturer:
– Trusses and LVL rafters
– Triple grips, gang nails, nail/screws
– Brackets
– 70×35 temporary bracing (later to be used
as eave framing materials)		$14,105.34
Bunnings materials: For the roof framing$ 331.94
Windows$11,264.86
Total$32,054.73

Total Project Costs To Date

Series Navigation<< Our Dream Renovation: 06 Subfloor FrameOur Dream Renovation: 08 Lock Up >>

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